


Everything I've Loved Has Turned To Stone

by Dredfulhapiness



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Irondad, Mid-Canon, Mid-Endgame, Tony wants to keep his son safe ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-19 21:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19364572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dredfulhapiness/pseuds/Dredfulhapiness
Summary: “You’re alive,” Harley said, staring. Tony let go of his arm and stepped back. There was a long pause as Harley took in the sight of him. “What happened?” He searched Tony’s face as if trying to find the answer to every question he had ever asked. Tony squared his jaw.“We lost,” he said, and he saw something flicker in Harley’s eyes.“How bad is it?”“Fifty percent of all people.” A pause. He cleared his throat. “Across the universe, actually.”





	Everything I've Loved Has Turned To Stone

 

The house was quiet— quieter than before. The whole town was. It was unsettling. Tony had thought he’d gotten used to the silence that went along with half the population being gone, but he’d only gotten used to it in cities, where the noise level had dropped from metropolis to average suburb.

When he rang the doorbell, no one answered. His chest swelled with dread. He knocked, then knocked again, and right as he was about to blast the doorknob off he remembered.

The door to the shed was slightly ajar.

Tony pushed it open. He was afraid to look, afraid to be filled with grief, but when he finally looked in and saw Harley turned away from him and hunched over something he allowed himself to breathe.

When he cleared his throat, Harley didn’t react.

He tried again. Nothing.

Tony pushed his way into the shed. It wasn’t until he was behind Harley, pulling an earphone from his ear that Harley reacted. He whirled around, swinging a wrench in a wide arc. Tony managed to swivel out of the way and grabbed his wrist to keep him from hurting himself on the way back down.

“Watch where you’re swinging that thing,” he warned. “You could hurt somebody.”

“You’re alive,” Harley said, staring. Tony let go of his arm and stepped back. There was a long pause as Harley took in the sight of him. “What happened?” He searched Tony’s face as if trying to find the answer to every question he had ever asked. Tony squared his jaw.

“We lost,” he said, and he saw something flicker in Harley’s eyes.

“How bad is it?”

“Fifty percent of all people.” A pause. He cleared his throat. “Across the universe, actually.”

“Jesus.” Harley dropped the wrench he was holding with a clatter. He looked tired. He looked the way no kid his age should ever look: defeated, scared, torn. Tony thought, like a punch to the gut, about Charlie Spencer, and Peter, and all the other children that were casualties of this life he’d chosen. Harley rubbed at his eyes. To fight exhaustion, maybe. Maybe to keep from crying. Tony fought the urge to walk over to him, to put a hand on his shoulder. He had stepped behind the workbench, though, so he stayed there: a safe distance away.

Harley hadn’t been spared the shrapnel. No one had, really, but this hurt the most. Harley was alive, but he was far from okay, and there was still nothing he could do to help him.

“How long have you been awake, kid?” Harley just looked at him.

Tony cleared his throat, again, because it was the only thing he could think of to buy himself time in this conversation. He crossed his arms, chewed at a thumbnail. Harley was still looking at him.

“Your mom and sister. Are they... here?” Harley clenched his jaw.

“They’re gone,” he said. And Tony’s chest seized again.

“I’m sorry,” Tony said.

Harley didn’t answer. He turned back around instead, focused on something that Tony couldn’t see. This never got easier.

“You can’t stay here alone,” Tony said after a long moment of contemplation. He braced himself on the back of a chair. “Why don’t you.” He swallowed. “Why don’t you come back to New York with me?” Harley’s motion slowed. Even without seeing his face Tony saw the apprehension. “We have the room, and honestly the new house is a little _too_ big. So long as you’re not too much of a pain in the ass it should work out fine.”

“I’m not going with you.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you don’t have many other options.”

Harley looked like he was thinking. His hands didn’t move— they were clenched, white, around the edge of the countertop. “What I noticed,” he said, cold, “is that you left.”

Oh. _That’s_ what this was about.

“I had a whole world to save, you think I was going to spend the rest of my life babysitting some kid?”

Harley scoffed. If he were Tony, he would have pointed out that the world hadn’t been saved, so what was it all for? Harley wasn’t that cruel.

He risked a glance over his shoulder. His eyes were red, and wet, and it made Tony pull back, slightly, just enough for Him to notice. “You had people looking out for you,” Tony said, “Don’t be an idiot and try to live like…” he looked around the room. Before he could make an accurate comparison to Harley’s life and a doomsday prepper he was cut off.

“Like you?” Harley took his other earphone out. “Don’t look at me like that— I followed all the Avengers drama. How’s this any different than you pushing them all away to go live in some mansion somewhere by yourself.”

Tony scratched his nose with his thumb.

“Look I know it’s hard to understand that—“

“It’s not hard to understand!” Harley whipped around. “All of you think you’re the world’s moral compass. I’m not going to go with you and then be abandoned the minute we disagree on something.” Tony watched a tear slide down Harley’s cheek. He looked down and stared at his reflection in the metal of the work table in a weak attempt to avoid the gaze Harley was giving him. It didn’t work. It was the same look he gave himself. “I’m gonna decide what’s right for me. Not you, not Captain America, not the rest of the goddamn world because every time we let superheroes fight our battles we lose something: buildings, or people, or entire fucking cities!”

Tony winced.

“I’m not going to go with you,” Harley said, suddenly out of steam. He deflated. His voice was quiet. His chest heaved. He wiped at his cheeks with the back of his hand. “I need to take care of myself.”

It was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours that Tony sat there. If it had been anyone else— Steve, or Nat, or Clint— Tony would have accepted the loss and left. He would have spat out a comment about “Don’t come to me when you’re alone and miserable” and left, and been ready to say “I told you so” when they came crawling back.

He couldn’t do that. Not to Harley.

Tony sniffed. “What are you working on?” He asked to break the silence. He stepped closer to the workbench, feeling a lot like he was approaching a wild animal. Harley held out the prints he was working off of. Tony stared at them, at his hand. When Tony didn’t reach for it immediately, Harley sighed and slid it across the work bench to him.

Tony scanned the page.

“Missiles,” he said, and Harley, once again, didn’t look up. “Why?”

“It’s the end of the fucking world.” Harley’s shoulder jumped, like he was laughing. His voice was thick, though. “Gotta be ready.”

Tony propped himself up on a stool and leaned over the workbench. He weighed his options. There weren’t many, and only one of them kept him from abandoning Harley. Again.

“Alright, fine. You win. I’ll help you.” 

Harley raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

“Yes you did. This looks like shit: that’s a cry for help.” Tony pulled the hunk of wires and metal that Harley had been working on closer. In his periphery, he saw Harley’s lip twitch. “Seriously. You call this a missile?” 

* * *

 

When Tony got home, he collapsed on the couch. He was so tired his bones hurt. His chest ached, dull and throbbing, and sad.

“How is he?” When he heard Pepper’s voice, he didn’t bother to open his eyes.

“He’s alone.” He slung his hand over his eyes. “That’s on us.”

Pepper hummed. She let him wallow, for a minute, then, “What’s for dinner?” She forced him back into normalcy. Back into his life. Space hadn’t swallowed him, so he needed to be present. Thanos hadn’t killed him, so he needed to be whole. It was a lot of work, and if it weren’t for Pepper, he wasn’t sure if it was an effort he’d be willing to make.

By the time Harley had finished his first missile, Tony was deep in the throes of wedding planning. He sent money every month, though: enough for the mortgage, and groceries, and any tools or materials Harley may need. He’d left his phone number in a card on the workbench. He left opportunities everywhere he could, because that was all he had left to offer. Tony had failed Charlie and Peter, but he didn’t need to fail Harley, too. He could do right by this one kid, and he could pretend that forgave all his past transgressions. 

* * *

 

“We’re going to try to fix it,” he told Harley. On the other end of the line, he heard Harley let out a breath. Tony switched his phone to his other ear and pulled the model back up on the holoscreen. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” 

“So what is this? A goodbye call?”

“It’s a call to tell you to not do anything stupid.”

“What does ‘fixing it’ involve?”

“Just some light time travel, nothing big. Did I tell you I figured out time travel? Because I did. I figured out time travel.”

“Success hasn’t made you any less humble.” He rubbed at his eyes. Morgan was upstairs, asleep. Pepper was in the kitchen. Harley was in Tennessee and STILL Tony felt so alone. “Tony?” And he sounded afraid, and young, and all Tony could think was “mr. stark I don’t wanna go.”

“You don’t want this, kid.” He heard a cough. “You’re smart, and skilled, and...” _and so much like me_ “you’re going to find a better use for that than putting your ass on the line. It’s not the end of the world yet, we still have one more chance. Take it.”

“You didn’t.”

“And knowing how my decisions usually pan out, I’ll probably regret it. Just like you’re making me regret complimenting you.”

“I’ll see you after you save the world, then.” And thank god Tony has one kid that listened to him.

“Take care of yourself, Kid,” he said, because Tony didn’t like to make promises he couldn’t keep. Not anymore. 

“Be careful, Tony,” Harley said. “Please.”

When he hung up, Tony got his affairs in order. He made sure Harley would have enough money if he needed it, that May would be able to take care of herself and (oh, god, hopefully and) Peter, that Morgan and Pepper and Happy would have enough money no matter what. Even if Tony couldn’t win a fight— even if he couldn’t ensure his own victory— he could make sure they were taken care of. That was the least a hero could do.

**Author's Note:**

> Questions? Comments? Concerns? Headcanons? Pop em in the comments or find me on Twitter and Tumblr @dredfulhapiness ! I'm always down to talk about these boys!
> 
> Title is from "Broadripple is Burning" By Margot & The Nuclear So & Sos


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